What does 'as' mean in the following sentence?
"Have you seen the Parthenon in Nashville? It's a marvellous thing. I mean, there's nothing else in the world that gives us as vivid a sense of what the [original] Parthenon was like."
My guesses are:
- Is it part of the comparative construction 'as...as' with its last part (i.e. as that) implied? And if so, in what cases does it happen? I have not seen anything like that before.
- From the context, I would expect to see in place of 'as vivid a sense' something like: 'such a vivid sense' or 'so/that vivid a sense'. So, could 'as' here mean the same as "such/so/that"? I couldn't find such a meaning of 'as' in any of my dictionaries, though. And if that is the case, would a sentence like 'The Parthenon in Nashville gives us as vivid a sense (= such a vivid sense) of what the original Parthenon was like.' sound ok? Or should some kind of comparison always be involved?